


You can’t outrun Death

by teaspoonbooks27



Category: Ranger's Apprentice - John Flanagan
Genre: Character Death, Death Fic, Father-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:20:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27424108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaspoonbooks27/pseuds/teaspoonbooks27
Summary: Will has lived a dangerous life, that is irrefutable. He has cheated death countless times over. But Death always finds a way to catch up. And after so many times of Will slipping away from it, Death seems to have come after Will at full force.Too bad Will wasn’t quick enough this time.
Relationships: Alyss Mainwaring/Will Treaty, Halt O'Carrick & Will Treaty, Horace Altman/Cassandra | Evanlyn
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	You can’t outrun Death

**Author's Note:**

> Trigger Warning: character death

Will has lived a dangerous life, that is irrefutable. He has cheated death countless times over. But Death always finds a way to catch up. And after so many times of Will slipping away from it, Death seems to have come after Will at full force.

Too bad Will wasn’t quick enough this time.

It started innocently enough. When the headaches began, he chalked it up to the stress he was under. Crowley had been putting more and more assignments on Will, and while he truly enjoyed his work, there was no denying the fact that he was starting to feel burnt out. Which is why he didn’t even notice the growing fatigue. He was able to work though the fatigue and headaches, but then the pins and needles started in his hands, making it more difficult for him to keep a firm grip on his bow. When he was hit with a strong wave of nausea and dizziness that caused him to completely miss his target while practicing one day, he realized that it was time to be seen by a physician.

The man didn’t have an answer for Will. “The body is still a mystery.” He recommended some herbs that did nothing to alleviate Will’s symptoms.

After that everything seemed to rapidly go down hill. He was vomiting frequently, eventually not able to keep anything but bread and broth down. His memory became hazy and struggled to remember details of events that transpired the day prior.

Crowley had to remove him from all of his Ranger duties and Alyss stopped going on assignments in order to stay with her ever weakening husband. Will fought her on this, he didn’t want to be a burden, didn’t want to interfere with her job. But one morning while she was out visiting Pauline to go over another courier’s recent assignment, he lost his balance while making coffee and badly burned his forearm. After that Alyss and Halt decided that someone should stay with Will at all times, taking shifts being with him. Halt had also asked Crowley to put a temporary hold on any Ranger assignments for him. He didn’t want to be far from Will.

The months went on without Will showing any sign of improvement. In fact, he getting worse by the day. Halt had sent for Malcolm, but when he saw the condition Will was in he pulled Halt aside.

“It’s not good Halt.” The healer said. “I’ve only seen something like this a handful of times and never once has the patient made it though. There isn’t anything that I can do to cure him.” Malcolm’s face was grim, broken hearted that a man as lively and active as Will was has become so reliant on the help of other people, not even able to feed himself at this point.

“Are you telling me that we should just give up!” Halt snapped harshly.

Malcolm didn’t take Halt’s anger personally, telling a parent that their child was dying would always be the hardest part of his job. “I’m saying that we want to make Will as comfortable as we can. I have some herbs that may help with the pain, but they won’t extend his life. Only make it a little easier for the time he has left.”

Halt was at a loss for words. This was Will they were talking about. His Will. His boy. He has always been able to save him from whatever danger he got himself into. How could he just sit back and accept what was going to happen?

“How long?” Halt said roughly holding back tears.

“No one can really know. But based on what I’ve seen before, it could be a month. But it could also be a week.” Now Malcolm had tears rolling down his cheeks. This was the bitter reality of Will’s condition.

“We need,” Halt’s voice broke and he took a moment to try to pull himself together. There was so much that had to be done, he couldn’t fall apart. Not yet.

He started again, “We need to tell Alyss. Horace and Cassandra too. They have to be here. Crowley and the other Rangers as well. And, and someone needs to try to talk to Will about all of this. He needs to know what’s going to happen.”

“I can do whatever you need me to do. I’m not going anywhere.” Malcolm placed a hand on Halts shoulder.

After that everything happens in a blur. Alyss seems to be numb, not acknowledging anyone, just sitting by Will’s bed, holding his hand and whispering soft, comforting words. For his part, Will didn’t really seem to understand what was happening. Halt had tried to explain it to him, but after a couple hours, he had forgotten everything Halt had said. They stopped trying to explain it after the third time.

“He doesn’t need this.” Halt had sighed. “He can’t remember anything we tell him and it’s just making him upset.”

Horace and Cassandra had arrived as soon as the could, and not a moment too soon. Two days after they came to Redmont, Will took a turn for the worse. He was no longer able to drink anything without it immediately coming back up and couldn’t stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time.

It was a gray November morning when it happened. Cassandra had made Alyss go with her to get some food in town. She hadn’t left the cabin in days and Cassandra thought some fresh air would do Alyss some good. So it was just Halt sitting stoically on the edge of Will’s bed. Will groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

“Hey kiddo, how are you holding up?” Halt asked, putting a gentle hand on the young mans check.

“I’m going to be alright.” Will’s words were slurred and sluggish.

Tears weld up in Halt’s eyes. Will’s response just proved how little he understood about his own situation.

“Yeah, you are. You’ve been through worse than this.” Halt paused and took a deep breath. Something deep inside him urged him to tell Will how much he meant to him.

“I love you Will, you know that right?”

Will nodded slightly, eyes already drooping.

“You are the best son a man could ever ask for. You have saved my life more times than I can count. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t’ for you. I need you to know how much I love you Will. I never thought that I could care about someone as much as I do for you. You have made my life worth living.”

“I love you too dad.” Will whispered. It was so soft that Halt almost didn’t catch it. But the word “dad” made his breath catch.

“Rest easy my son.” Halt pressed a kiss onto Will’s forehead.

Then Will’s eyes closed for the last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on Tumblr @ forgedroyalseal


End file.
